


Grandstanding

by Emjen_Enla



Series: Prompted Works [26]
Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Don't ask me to continue this I don't know how, F/M, Jude Returns to Elfhame, QoN Speculation, The Jude Can Pardon Herself Theory, i also don't know how to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 11:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21053312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emjen_Enla/pseuds/Emjen_Enla
Summary: Jude returns to Elfhame with a plan to gain her position as High Queen.





	Grandstanding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lillith80](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lillith80/gifts).

> This was requested by Lillith80 a hideously long time ago (like back in August). The prompt was "Could you write FF where Jude comes back to Elphame during a revel, with a crown on her head and “Queen-style” (I’m the queen bitches, you say something and I skin you alive) and cardan will be like (finally you figured it-the riddle)." I finally got around to writing it. Hopefully you enjoy despite how long its been.

The sounds of the faerie revel echoed across Elfhame. To the average human, who had just stumbled into the world of faerie, the noise would have probably have been a mixture of horrifying and alluring. Jude heard it as familiar, perhaps even a little relieving. It was nice to be home.

Jude walked towards the palace with long, controlled strides. The elaborate faerie dress she wore swished around her ankles. The dress had been Vivi’s. Jude had rescued it from the floor of her sister’s closet and made the alterations necessary to make it fit herself. She wasn’t much of a seamstress, but she’d managed it. After all, she couldn’t take it to a human; it was too obviously not a human thing. On her head she wore a crown made of delicate silver wires twisted and tangled like thorns and studded with rubies she’d also liberated from Vivi’s closet--she hadn’t asked how her sister had gotten them and she didn’t care.

Jude had made the crown herself using the welders and machinery in the local high school’s shop classroom. The weeks spent in the shop classroom perfecting her knowledge of the machinery so she could make the crown had been the most interesting in the ten months she’d spent in the mortal world. She hadn’t started attending school, despite Vivi’s coaxing. Instead she’d just banged on the back door to the shop classroom one morning and told the teacher who answered--a man old enough to be her father--that she needed to use his forge. He’d looked at her like she was insane and told her that a) there were no forges in the classroom and b) only students enrolled in shop classes could use the machinery. Jude had just raised her eyebrows and repeated her demand with all the imperiousness she could muster--she figured it would be good practice for convincing people she was a queen. When he still didn’t let her in she’d returned every day until he had.

Once she’d managed to get into the shop there were other problems. The teacher had taught her how to use the welder--he’d been shocked by her lack of concern for her own safety in a way that made her feel inexplicably embarrassed--and Jude had begun practicing and planning out how to complete her project. She had no experience with forging and this had to be a masterpiece, or she would just look pathetic. There was much to do and every day she waited gave Cardan and Madoc more time to solidify their power and Cardan more time to master his magic. She needed to move quickly, before her plan lost all hope of working.

There was also the problem of the students who used the shop classroom. It turned out that forging was considered a very masculine thing in the human world. The boys did their utmost to show her that she was not welcome. Eventually she got sick of it and laid the biggest and most annoying of them out with a few well-placed punches. After that they were too afraid to approach her, though she heard them muttering about her being a “crazy bitch” behind her back.

Their fear and ire didn’t bother her, but the fear and discomfort of the other people she encountered did. The school administration quickly figured out about her wanting to talk about why she wasn’t enrolled in school. Jude lied and said she had already graduated and had come to the city to live with her mother and step-brother. She even got Vivi to come in glamoured as an older woman to sell the story, but not before she realized that she was making all the people she interacted with uncomfortable. It was like they could all tell that there was something different about her, but just couldn’t put their fingers on what. When she finally realized what was going on, she’d gone home and sobbed into her pillow for hours. The whole time she’d lived in Elfhame she’d fought against the assumption that she was too human to belong there. Now she realized she was too faerie to belong in the mortal world.

After that breakdown, she returned to the shop determined to finish the crown as quickly as possible and get out of the mortal world for good. She could not and would not reside herself to staying here for the rest of her life.

And that was what had led her back to Faerie tonight. She’d been pretty sure but not positive that she wouldn’t die immediately upon setting foot in Elfhame. It had taken her an embarrassingly long time to catch the loophole in Cardan’s wording when he’d banished her. He had said she could be pardoned by the crown. She’d assumed that meant she had to wait for him to pardon her, then she’d realized that since she was High Queen of Faerie she was also the crown and could pardon herself. Armed with that knowledge she had formulated her plan to discredit Cardan and take back power for herself.

The wind grew wilder as she approached the palace, like a storm was blowing in. She smiled to herself. She hadn’t known for sure if Elfhame would respond to her moods the way it did for Cardan’s, but she was glad it did. It was just more proof that she really was the queen and that this plan would work.

Two faerie knights were standing outside the door, looking bored and a little drunk. Jude strode up to them with her head held high. She’d thought about waiting to put the crown on until she was inside and hoping the guards would mistake her for Taryn and let her pass, but ultimately she’d decided she couldn’t stomach it. She would enter the palace to get her revenge as herself and she would not take no for an answer.

“Who are you?” one of the knights asked, holding her spear out to stop Jude from stepping forward. “You’re late for the revel.”

“I demand to see Cardan Greenbriar,” Jude said in the imperious voice she’d been practicing for months.

“The High King is very busy at the revel,” the other knight said, looking like he was trying to decide if Jude was ensorcelled or just crazy. “There is no guarantee he will deign to speak to you.”

“Oh, he’ll deign to speak to me,” Jude said. “Now let me pass.”

The two knights looked at each other and shrugged. It was obvious they thought Jude more deluded than dangerous, which was frustrating but better than them realizing who she was and trying to kill her to gain Cardan’s favor. She swept by them and into the palace.

Instantly she was almost knocked over by a wave a homesickness. She’d spent months here, working and trying to keep everything from falling apart only to have it snartched away from her. She had half a mind to go to her chambers and see if her old clothes and things were still there, but she knew that was a bad idea. Cardan had probably had her room cleared out and given to someone else without hours of her banishment. She had to focus on completing the plan.

Even if she hadn’t had experience with them, the revel would not have been hard to find. As she walked down the halls the sounds of the party got louder and louder. It didn’t sound like the wildest revel which had ever been thrown in Elfhame which was good. The more subdued things were the more likely it was that Cardan would be sober enough to grasp that he’d been beaten.

Outside the door to the hall she paused for a moment to straighten her dress and crown. Also to push away some unwanted nerves. She was ready for this; it was going to work. She took a deep breath and strode into the revel with her head held high.

At first no one noticed her, but she kept walking towards the throne. Slowly people began to notice the High King’s banished former senechal stalking through a revel with a crown on her head. They started to stop and stare. Jude kept her head held high and walked like she’d never been thrown away. 

Cardan was lounging on his throne, dressed in clothes which were if anything more elaborate than usual. His tail was loose and curled delicately around the throne’s arm. He’d been drinking—Jude wasn’t exactly surprised about that since asking him not to drink was like asking him not to breathe—but he still looked sober enough to be coherent. That was good. She’d timed her entrance in the hopes that he wouldn’t be so far gone to drink that he wouldn’t be able to realize what had happened.

Cardan was deep in conversation with Locke. He caught sight of her and she saw the words die on his lips. He pushed Locke aside in a way that might have been unnecessarily forceful if he hadn’t been so obviously distracted. He shifted into a more upright position, expression rearranging itself. Jude noticed that he had covertly maneuvered himself so he was sitting on his tail, presumably to hide it for what would be an undeniably upsetting conversation. 

Jude took a deep breath and spoke, “Cardan Greenbriar, I have returned to claim what is mine,” she kept her head high and pretended all the faeries watching didn’t bother her.

She’d hoped for Cardan to react with rage or fear, anything to prove she’d surprised him, but she hadn’t exactly been expecting him to, so she wasn’t disappointed or particularly surprised when he leaned back casually on his throne. “And what do I have which could possibly be yours?” He asked with an air of nonchalance.

“My crown,” Jude said in a cold, clear voice. “The night before you banished me you married me and made me your queen.”

The gathered faeries burst into hysterical laughter. They found the idea of a mortal queen of Elfhame hilarious. They all thought she was insane. She felt her cheeks begin to heat up but forced herself to press on with the same strength as before. She was right. She knew she was right, she just needed to force Cardan to admit it. 

“You know it’s true,” she said. “You know it.”

Cardan leaned forward and stared at her. He was the only faerie in the whole room who wasn’t smiling or laughing. His expression was one of fierce blankness she wouldn’t have expected from him. “You seem very certain you’re right,” he said quietly. 

For a horrible second panic rushed through her and she wondered if she had misunderstood some part of their vows which would allow Cardan to wiggle out of them. She’d been over everything he’d said hundreds of times over the last few months and she knew there were no loopholes. Still she worried that she’d misremembered. Maybe she was too certain. 

Still it was too late to go back. She’d come too far to turn back. “Then deny it,” she said. “Deny me. Tell me that I’m insane and that I’m not your queen. Go ahead.”

Cardan stared impassively at her. The last time she’d demanded this of him there had been enough pandemonium for him to get away with not responding but this time was different. Faeries were still tittering to each other but they were also all paying attention to see how their High King would respond. He couldn’t get away with not responding this time. 

Finally Cardan said, “You know I cannot deny it, Jude darling.”

“Then say it,” Jude growled. 

He stared at her for one more minute then sighed. “You, Jude Duarte, are my wife and High Queen of Elfhame.”

You could hear a pin drop. Jude didn’t think she’d ever heard a gathering of faeries so silent. This was going better than she’d dared hope for. 

“Then you acknowledge that you banished me after Balekin’s death to get me out of Elfhame and wrest power from me before I could gain it?” She pushed. She needed to make him admit everything while she still had the upper hand. She couldn’t give him time to plan. 

“I did banish you and that did keep you from coming into your power, so I suppose that is true in a way,” Cardan said. Not quite an answer. She wondered why he was equivocating on that. Admitting to those motives might actually win some face back with the crowd.

“And you never expected me to find my way back and confront you,” Jude pushed. “But you messed up and left a loophole in the terms of my banishment. You said I could only come back when I was pardoned by the crown, but when I married you I became High Queen. I am the crown as much as you are!”

Somehow the hall got even quieter. Jude wasn’t sure any of the faeries were even breathing. She held back a grin. She had him. She had them all. 

Cardan stared at her for what felt like ages, his face was expressionless, then he leaned back in his chair and smiled at her. 

It was not his nervous smile. 

“Congratulations,” he said, still smiling. “You found the loophole, though admittedly I thought it would take you less than ten months to figure it out.”

Jude froze. It felt like someone had pulled the floor out from under her and left her to fall through the dark. She wasn’t sure how to understand what had just happened. Just seconds ago she’d been winning and now Cardan has the upper hand again. How had he done it? She’d think he was lying only he couldn’t lie. Why would he possibly have left a deliberate loophole in her banishment? Why would he have wanted her to come back when he’d disposed of her so handily? It didn’t make any sense.

“I must admit,” Cardan went on which was good because she wouldn’t have been able to speak without croaking, “I did not expect you to return in quite this grand a fashion. This level of grandstanding is more my style than yours.”

“Well, there’s something to be said for originality,” Jude said. It wasn’t the most impressive response she could have given but at least she didn’t sound like she was being strangled. 

“I suppose,” Cardan stood up. His tail was swishing back and forth, showing that he was more agitated then he appeared. She knew the only reason he hadn’t shoved it back down his pants was because that would be even more awkward. “Would you like to take this to a more private location?” He asked. “We have a lot to discuss.”

Jude hated to agree with him, but with the way this conversation was going getting away from the audience was probably a good idea. At least if they were alone she could always resort to the good old “kill my husband and install my little brother on the throne” trick if all else failed. “Very well,” she said in her calmest voice. There was a way to salvage this. She would salvage it. “Lead on."


End file.
